Wu is a subdivision ofChinese, spoken by about 80 million people. It is spoken to southernJiangsu and most ofZhejiang, an area sometimes referred to asJiangnan. The historically wealthy Lower Yangtze Delta is home to the largest branch,Northern Wu, and is also the lect area that is represented on Wiktionary.Suzhounese (zh) was the cultural capital of the area, though due toShanghai's relative economic status,Shanghainese (zh) has, to some extent, eclipsed Suzhounese's prestige status. Characteristically Wu varieties have voiced (濁／浊 (⁸zoq, “muddy”)) obstruents, and all except Oujiang varieties such asWenzhounese have final glottal stops derived from the final stops of Middle Chinese. Together, these features reduce the number of tones that are actually distinctive or phonemic.

Although no official romanization system is endorsed by any government, on Wiktionary, both of these lects are notated inWugniu, which is the most common standardised system used in online circles nowadays. Wugniu is also available in a wide variety of localities, and correspondences between different lects tend to have the same glyph (eg. Shanghainese/ɔ/ and Suzhounese/æ/ both being "au"). Slight modifications and extensions have been made regarding features not included in Wugniu officially, such as tone sandhi and erhua. The legacy Wiktionary romanization for Shanghainese and MiniDict romanizations are accessible in the expanded pronunciation infobox.

Left-prominent sandhi is notated with a dash in code (-) and a space in display, whereas right-prominent sandhi is a plus (+) in code but also a space in display. To separate two chains without RPS, an ampersand (&) is used.

The inputted toneleft of the syllable is always the realized sandhi tone. This may not always correspond with the underlying tone, and one should consultModule:wuu-pron/data (for now) before adding entries. If the sandhi tone and underlying tone are the same, then the module would automatically put the first syllable's number in front of the syllable and all subsequent syllables' numbers behind their respective syllables. For instance:

Shanghainese:1lau6 sy1 →¹lau₆-sy₁

Please also note that certain lects may have multiple types of directional sandhi or tone splits not accomodated for in the eight-numberal system. In those cases, a capital Latin letter is to be attatched behind the number to indicate the part of speech or tone category, eg.3Atha or4Rbau.

There is no unified orthography for Wu varieties that is widely adopted. On Wiktionary, in general, all terms are listed in both their etymological spelling and their phonetic spelling. There may be more than one phonetic page, but there is typically only one etymological page. The following is a reference list of common terms and Wiktionary-specific spellings.

• 中華 /中华:zh-pron|w=sh:1tson gho;sz:1tson gho2

The majority of the lexicography for Wu entries are taken from Shi & Miyata (2005)明清吴语词典. Texts consulted in the dictionary are chronologically listed below for easy reference.

• 便民圖篡: completed in the middle of the Wanli era (1573-1620), but work may have started as early as the Chenghua (1465-1487) or Hongzhi era (1488-1505)
• 焚香記: author lived during the Wanli era (1573-1620)

• 蠶經: author became ajuren in1531

• 鉢中蓮: first published in1619
• 禪真後史: first published in1629
• 二刻拍案驚奇 (二拍) first published in1632
• 醋葫蘆,飛英聲: writtenduring the Ming-Qing transition
• 二刻醒世恆言:1668 cppy known. Not written by Feng Menglong
• 北墅抱瓮錄: first published in1690

• 長物志: author lived between1585-1645
• 禪真逸史: written before禪真後史 (ie.before 1629)
• 黨人碑: authorborn in 1617
• 別本拍案驚奇: author lived between1580-1644
• 燈月緣: likely completed in the early years of the Qing dyansty (ie.after 1644)
• 飛花詠: known copy from the early years of the Qing dyansty (ie.after 1644)
• 豆棚閒話: written some time in the1660's or 1670's (胡適 (2013).胡適古典文学研究 下)
• 不下帶編・巾箱說: author lived between1663-1740
• 風箏誤: a copy from the Kangxi era (1662-1722) exists
• 翡翠園: authordied in 1701

• 飛龍全傳:1768 stated in preface
• 大雙蝴蝶: written in1769

• 訂訛類編: author lived between1696-1773
• 風流悟: Japanese copy from 1784 known, often assumed to be written in the early years of the Qianlong era (ie.1730's or 1740's)
• 丹午筆記: author lived in the Qianlong era (1736-1796)
• 白雪遺音: either at the end of the Qianlong era (1736-1796) or the start of the Jiaqing era (1796-1820)
• 巢林筆談: author lived between1704-1769
• 浮生六記: author lived between1763-^?1807

• 常言道: carving dated to1804
• 芙蓉洞:1836 copy exists
• 蕩寇志: completed in1847
• 邇言等五種:邇言 first printed in1849;1877 edition of常語尋源 exists
• 葛雲閣曲譜: furst copied in1893

• 邇言等五種:釋諺,語竇 ,俗說: all written in themid-late 19th century
• 方言別錄: author lived between1846-1921

• 負曝閒談: published between1903-1904
• 毒蛇圈:1904 edition known
• 重訂合聲簡字譜（吳音譜）: drafted in1905
• 地府志: published in1908

• 二十年目睹之怪現狀: author lived between 1866-1910, moved to Shanghai in 1884, first started publication in1903

• 定情人: some time in the Qing dyansty

• 爾雅
• 方言

• For checking the pronunciation of words, useThe Comprehensive Dictionary of Shanghainese (《上海话大词典》), which uses IPA notations throughout the book.Wugniu also has a Shanghainese dictionary listed under松江 Songjiang. However, note that Wugniu's dictionary spills into lect areas outside of Puxi
• For checking the pronunciation of characters, useWugniu orWu Chinese MiniDict

  Note that MiniDict uses a different romanisation system than the one implemented here.Their romanisation scheme is as listed on their website

• Category:Wu language
• Category:Northern Wu
• Category:Shanghainese Wu
• Category:Suzhounese Wu
• Wiktionary:About Chinese/Wenzhounese,Wiktionary:About Wu/Northern Wu

If unsure, hassleUser:ND381 orUser:Musetta6729.

• Wiktionary pages with shortcuts